Comments (2)

Steadman's Tash says...

Adage Edge, I think back to the Castleford teams of the super league era and the one that beat Hull and Wigan recently. The 17 was full of not just British lads but ones from Cas too. I look at Huddersfield and Saints today and add teams like Wigan and Leeds who have promoted youth consistently for the last decade and think we have a lot less mediocre imports than a few years ago. Especially since relegation was removed and dual registration is giving game time too fringe players too. Are things as bad as you say?

Posted 05:43 2nd July 2013

Adge Edge says...

British Rugby League has only got itself to blame for what is happening to our game over here. We have been letting hundreds of overseas players joining our teams which is obviously not letting our teams develop young British talent. I have seen lots of excellent young prospects stop playing rugby league because they have not and will never be allowed to develop their talent in the current set up. The vast majority of the overseas players are not good enough to play in their own countries but there is a misconception that because someone is an aussie or a kiwi he must be a top player. Wrong. If they were top players they would be back in their own countries earning better salaries than what they get here. What we are starting to see now is a vicious circle developing whereas the aussies are now starting to take our best talent and, because we have no home grown talent to step up we have to take in overrated players from abroad and pay them inflated salaries. I think that the only solution would be painful but in the long term very beneficial if we want to compete with the aussies and kiwis at international level. We should limit the overseas quota to two players per club and develop our own talent. I know that we will suffer for a few years at international level but I am sure that we will reap the benefits and eventually become number one in the world again. Another thing is to scrap the stupid dual registration system that the top teams are starting to abuse. By all means have a system where players from a lower division can step up and have a trial of sorts with a team from a higher division but no player should be allowed to drop divisions just to get them match fit for their own club. Now because the game over here has gone stagnant there is talk of major shake ups on the way which may benefit the game. But be aware they could also kill the game.